"It's possibly the most abundant of lithium sources but it's been a little difficult to process using conventional technology.

"As a consequence people have tended to mine the other minerals and throw the lepidolite away.

"The companies that control lithium production around the world are generally industrial mineral producers or chemical companies.

"So lithium has generally been only 10 to maybe 20 per cent of their total revenue stream, and as a consequence it hasn't commanded much of a focus."

Cobre Montana has secured exclusive licensing rights, in Australia, to the recovery process for lithium carbonate from mica which is also known as sheet silicates.

Adrian Griffin says being able to extract lithium from lepidolite doesn't have to mean new mining operations.

"Globally there are mine dumps (waste ore and rocks) with vast quantities of lepidolite sitting in them, there are also a lot of hard rock deposits that have abundant lepidolites and never been mined."